Asus Zenfone 3 – Camera Review

The last time the we had an Asus phone in our hands, it did wonders. It was seen as the first phone to have a 3x optical zoom and it certainly lived up to its expectations. We did a complete review of that phone back then and this time around, we have something even more fascinating.

We must admit, it is so much fun being photographers and experimenting around with things happening in our daily lives. Even though we specialise in Wedding Photography, we have the enthusiasm to go about clicking anything and everything. We love creating stories on the go. But more often than not, we do not have our fancy DSLRs in our hands to get that right moment. In fact, gone are the days when you had to move around with an SLR all the time.

Arrive – A Mobile phone which can do a lot more with its brilliant camera.

Before we move into what the phone does when it comes to shooting, a quick glance at the handsome gadget itself 🙂

Alright then. It’s established that the phone is pretty and handsome at the same time.

Let’s move to what it can really do. With so many features bundled in this gadget, there is so much one can do. There’s a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, 6P Largan lens, and dual-LED real tone flash which helps in getting precisely what you intend to capture. We wouldn’t get into too many technical details and specifications in our blog here. This phone has TONS of features. You can view all of it here.

Oh. Did we mention that the phone can capture 4k video. Yes, 4k.

This means we as photographers can shoot anything from this phone and give a broad smile. Instantly.

https://vimeo.com/187938987

Over to our story.

All this started when we were out for a shoot to Karjat. This meant, an early morning drive from Mumbai to Karjat with us catching the sunrise as usual. It gave us the perfect beginning to start shooting with the new phone. We had not even gone through all its functions by then and we just decided to point our phone towards the sunrise and switch on the HDR mode. Mind you, that’s the time when almost every photographer can mess up the settings because of the varied exposures in the entire frame.

But, Asus Zenfone 3 with its HDR mode really brought out the best of all the exposures in that frame.

The sunrise looked great and yet, the foreground did not turn black. It gave us enough detailing to showcase the grass lands. It was a little too good and managed to capture the electrical wires too. Ha !

Manual Focus, Low Light and Night Photography – This is something every photography enthusiast would want. Get the settings perfectly placed for that precise shot.

The biggest advantage here is that the phone takes a split second to get the focus right and it’s good to go.

We didn’t have to wait there to get multiple shots of the same frame hoping we have got it in focus.

The below shown pictures are shot using Manual Focus and Night Features.

When it comes to Low Light, the phone gets smarter than ever. It reduces the resolution and the shutter speed so as to bring in more light and also reduce the noise levels. This gave us enough bandwidth to get some light trail pictures on the road. We did not have to setup a tripod to get any of these shots.

Something that potential customers would want to know 🙂

They can get these shots holding the phone in their hands as well.

Now, Manual Focusing has its own merits. Massive merits. Not always do we want a picture in complete focus. Do we? There are times when you would want the street lights as a bokeh and not as just light poles.

So this is how we got a shot by actually throwing the picture out of focus. Looks pretty. Doesn’t it?

Finally, we have the depth of field mode. Honestly, we weren’t too sure of what it could do. But we were more than just surprised looking at the results. They were phenomenal. Something that even our fancy DSLRs struggle to capture at times. No more talking. Letting the images do all the talking.

Final Words: We have said this before. Asus phones are pocket DSLRs. And this one – Asus Zenfone 3, most definitely.

Instagram-ers would love to carry this and not have to use any of their filters. This phone captures everything so elegantly.

And to top it all, it records video in 4k. It cannot get any better than that.